Elusive Apple CEO Tim Cook will skip his annual sit-down interview with tech journalists Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg. Instead, Apple is sending two of Cook’s top lieutenants to sit in the hot seat during the Code Conference this May.

A key executive within Apple is reportedly leaving the company due to a fallout with design chief Jony Ive. The result is that Ive will directly control even more of how Apple designs its software.

Greg Christie has been getting a lot of attention lately in the Apple vs. Samsung patent trial for his role as an engineer for the original iPhone. And that’s not all he’s known for; the guy has also patented nearly a hundred ideas for Apple, including the iconic “Slide to unlock” patent Apple is using as evidence in the ongoing case with Samsung.

Christie has been heading up Apple’s software design under Craig Federighi. But according to a new report, Ive is basically pushing Christie out because the two haven’t been getting along.

As part of Apple’s celebration of the Mac’s 30th anniversary, the company invited David Muir of ABC News to its Cupertino headquarters for a rare interview with CEO Tim Cook. A couple teaser clips have already aired, and the full special will premiere tonight on ABC’s World News With Diane Sawyer.

In the interview, Cook was joined by Apple executives Craig Federighi and Bud Tribble. Federighi is in charge of Apple’s software, and Tribble was a member of the original Apple Macintosh design team.

There are several juicy tidbits to be gleaned from the interview excerpts, including the confirmation that Apple’s new factory in Arizona will manufacture sapphire glass. Cook also shared his thoughts on the iWatch rumors, NSA, and more.

According to Phil Schiller, merging the OS X and iOS operating systems would be a “waste of energy.”

Schiller was giving an interview with MacWorld on the eve of the Mac’s thirtieth anniversary. Asked about the chances of such a convergence, Schiller had the following to say:

2013 was an enormous year for Apple.  Yes, there were hyped keynotes galore, fabulous new products, record breaking sales, and much, much more. But 2013 was about more than just hardware for Apple Inc. During Tim Cook’s second full-year reigning over Apple we saw the CEO really settle into his role helming the largest tech company in the world while Jony Ive’s influence grew to greater heights than in the Jobs-era as he spread his design tentacles from hardware to software.

Jony and Tim weren’t the only stars of 2013 though. There was the up-and-coming VP of software engineering Craig Federighi and Craig Federighi’s Hair, while Apple’s hiring of Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts received heaps of praise from both the financial, tech, and fashion markets. Oh and don’t forget about goons like David Einhorn, Carl Icahn and even cranky old John McCain getting their jabs in at Apple throughout the year.

Here’s Cult of Mac’s look back on Apple in the year 2013:

Apple’s product announcements used to be the most exciting events in technology. Nowadays they’re boring, awkward and cringeworthy.

What happened? 

OS X Mavericks is Apple’s next major version of its desktop OS that has been in beta all summer, and today Apple announced that it’s ready to ship to the public. For the first time, Apple is offering the new OS X as a completely free downloaded in the Mac App Store, so there’s absolutely no reason for you to not get it.

So you didn’t get a chance to watch every breathtaking second of Apple’s iPad keynote today because you were doing other stuff like working? Well, Apple just made the video of today’s event available for streaming on its website so can catch up and relive all the glorious moments of Craig Federighi’s hair as well as the deets on the new iLife and iWork apps, the Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, iPad Air and everything else.

For best results, Apple recommends watching the video in Safari. You can also watch it on your Apple TV from the Apple Events app.

Source: Apple

Apple CEO Tim Cook took the stage today at San Francisco’s Moscone Center to kick off the special keynote event that we’ve dubbed here as the iPad Event.

Cook began his presentation with some numbers, including the nine million new iPhone 5s and 5c models that were sold over the first weekend of availability. Cook called it the biggest iPhone launch, ever, and showed a video to underline his point.

Apple software chief Craig Federighi took the stage today to talk OS X Mavericks. With his usual sense of humor, Federighi demoed new features in Mavericks and joked about his sense of style with his wife via iMessage. He also announced that the new OS is shipping today.